SNEAP Year 9 Session: Hmong Needlework
Subject
Chue Yang
(Hmong)
Subject
Mai See Her
(Hmong)
Subject
May Xiong
(Hmong, died 2015)
Date2005-2006
Mediumreformatted digital file from VHS tape
DimensionsDuration: 7 Minutes, 33 Seconds
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.640a-b
DescriptionVHS tape of a teaching session of the Southern New England Apprenticeship Program Year 9 team in Hmong needlework with teaching artist Chue Yang and apprentices Mai See Her and May Xiong.
NotesSubject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.Biographical Note: May Xiong was a remarkable and talented seamstress and embroiderer of traditional Hmong textiles and needlework of all kinds: paj ndau, skirts sewn entirely by hand, reverse appliqué, cross stitch, hats, making the entire costume in the different Hmong styles. Like many older Hmong women over 40, their mothers taught them traditional textile skills around the age of 14, in their Hmong villages in northern Laos. First they learned how to make the cross-stitched collars for the back of the shirt, then they learned the rest of the outfit, with the embroidered apron last. They also learned the paj ndau-story cloths from mothers and female family members. May and other women make whatever clothing Hmong people need, especially for the New Year celebration in November. May was involved as a teacher in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program with other Hmong embroiderers from Massachusetts and Connecticut, from 2006-2008. She was the wife of Boua Tong Xiong. May passed away in 2015.
Biographical Note: Chue Yang from Springfield, Massachusetts was involved as an artist in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program from 2006-2008, working with other Hmong embroiderers including Mai Lee from Massachusetts and Mai See Her and May Xiong from Connecticut. Chue is a talented seamstress and embroiderer of traditional Hmong textiles and needlework of all kinds: paj ndau, skirts sewn entirely by hand, reverse appliqué, cross stitch, hats, making the entire costume in the different Hmong styles. Like many older Hmong women over 40, their mothers taught them traditional textile skills around the age of 14, in their Hmong villages in northern Laos. First they learned how to make the cross-stitched collars for the back of the shirt, then they learned the rest of the outfit, with the embroidered apron last. They also learned the paj ndau-story cloths from mothers and female family members. She and other Hmong women make whatever clothing people in need, especially for the New Year celebration in November.
Subject Note: The Hmong community in Connecticut, around 300 in number, is based mostly in the Enfield and Manchester areas. They work in factories and service occupations, as well as skilled manufacturing, often in aerospace industries. The Hmong came to the United States as refugees from the Indochina wars in the 1970s after the Communist takeover of Laos, sponsored by the American government because many Hmong assisted the military and the CIA. At that time the Hmong were persecuted in Laos, and this still continues today with considerable fighting going on. The Hmong are a tribal group originally from Mongolia who migrated to Laos where many still live today. There are also Hmong communities in northern Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, and China (where they are called Miao).
Connecticut Hmong people are both traditional and contemporary. Older women used to make the gorgeous applique and embroidery work known as paj ndau, and they still create traditional costumes for women and men, albeit with modern shortcuts (traditional dyeing techniques are replaced by printed cloth, for instance). Men who are traditional community leaders, such as Boua Tong Xiong, still perform wedding and funeral rituals, as well as conflict resolution according to time-honored practices. Hmong traditions practiced in Connecticut include embroidery and story cloths, funeral and wedding songs, music on the bamboo instrument qeej, ballads and courtship songs kwv ntxhiaj, and social dancing. Hmong leaders started the Hmong Foundation of Connecticut as a way to keep the community together and continue to provide many kinds of needed assistance. The Foundation, which is led by a Board of Directors, is open to all Hmong living in the state. Members provide services such as translation, transportation, family relocation to Connecticut, assistance with finding jobs and access to health care, Hmong language classes, and traditional Hmong advising and dispute resolution. The Hmong Foundation of Connecticut became a separate organization in 1996 after the Connecticut Federation of Refugee Assistance Agencies, an umbrella service group, disbanded. The group sponsors Hmong New Year in November and a celebration for Hmong high school graduates in June.
The Hmong have a number of sub-cultural groups; one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Blue Hmong is their custom of batiking cloth with blue indigo. One specific kind of textile that the Hmong have become known for are the “story cloths”. These are a comparatively new genre first made in the Thai refugee camps around 1975. In these embroidered pieces, direct figurative references are made to folk tales, myths, personal family stories, and scenes of village life. These story cloths also depict the turbulence and hardships of the war years in Southeast Asia. Hmong textile works also include many references to the natural world, to the plants and animals, which are native to the hills of Laos. (Winifred Lambrecht, Ph.D (CCHAP project partner); July 2006)
Hmong New Year - Nyob Zoo Xyoo Tshiab - is the Hmong community’s most important annual festival. The New Year festival, always held late in the year, includes the ball toss, a game between young people that is a courtship ritual; a fashion show of different tribal costumes; a cultural presentation of dance and song; and a community-prepared feast with traditional foods. The spiritual connotation of the festival is for thanksgiving and new beginnings, and to honor ancestors. Hmong participants wear traditional dress, make speeches, and sing songs appropriate to the celebration. New Year also serves as a reminder and practice of traditions, as well as a gathering of cultural and social leaders.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists and this community.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
